Eliko Akahori
Senior Music Performance Faculty in Piano and Director, Music Performance Program
Pianist, teacher, and performer of piano and chamber music.
Eliko Akahori is a pianist, teacher, and performer of piano and chamber music. At Wellesley, she is on the Senior Music Performance Faculty in Piano and is currently the Director of the Music Performance Program.
As a pianist, Eliko frequently performs chamber music in the Boston area. She enjoys collaborating with fellow musicians, including her colleagues at Wellesley as well as faculty at New England Conservatory and members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
In addition to performance, Eliko’s background in composition and music theory provides her with tools to consider music from different perspectives and influences her approach to the piano repertoire. Eliko enjoys playing all different periods of classical music, but, in particular, she enjoys Mozart and 20th-century music. During the summer, Eliko spends her time performing at the Pacific Music Festival in Japan with musicians from Europe, Asia, and the United States.
Eliko completed a dissertation on contemporary Japanese composer Toshio Hosokawa’s music, focusing on how Hosokawa accentuates the Japanese essence of his music by utilizing concepts from Japanese wabi-sabi aesthetics, earning a Doctorate of Music from New England Conservatory in 2015.
Away from music, Eliko loves baking, playing tennis, and reading mystery novels.
Education
- B.M., Kunitachi College of Music (Japan)
- M.M., New England Conservatory of Music
- D.M.A., New England Conservatory of Music